The progress in the electronic technology enables various chips, such as the central processing unit (CPU), to have gradually reduced volume. Meanwhile, for the chips to process more data, the number of electronic components provided on the presently available chips is several times higher than that on the conventional chips of the same volume. When the number of electronic components on the chips increases, the heat generated by the electronic components during operation thereof also increases. For example, the heat generated by the CPU during operation thereof is high enough to burn out the whole CPU. Thus, it is always a very important issue as how to properly provide a heat dissipation device for various chips.
The currently available heat-dissipation devices and thermal modules are assembled from multiple similar and different heat-dissipation elements, such as a heat pipe, a heat sink and a heat-dissipation base. These heat-dissipation elements are usually welded to one another. However, for heat-dissipation elements made of an aluminum material, some procedures facilitating good welding must be performed before the aluminum heat-dissipation elements can be welded together with specific welding. Therefore, the forming of the conventional thermal modules involves complicated processing procedures and accordingly requires high manufacturing cost.
There are also manufacturers who use fastening elements, such as screws, to assemble different heat-dissipation elements together. However, not all the heat-dissipation elements can be assembled to one another with the screws. For example, the screws can be used to fasten heat radiation fins to a heat-dissipation base, but could not be used to fasten a heat pipe to a heat-dissipation base.
According to a conventional technical means for assembling the heat pipe to a heat-dissipation base, a recess is formed on the base and the heat pipe is set in the recess on the base. While this assembling way overcomes the problem in welding and screwing the heat-dissipation elements to form the thermal module, the thermal module so formed tends to have poor heat transfer efficiency due to high thermal resistance caused by the clearance existed between the assembled base and the heat pipe. In addition, the contact surfaces between the base and the heat pipe are substantially flat and smooth surfaces that have relatively small frictional force between them, which leads to relatively low fitting tightness in the longitudinal direction between the heat pipe and the base of the thermal module.
In brief, the conventional thermal module has the following disadvantages: (1) requiring higher manufacturing cost; (2) having lower heat transfer efficiency; and (3) having relatively poor assembling strength in the longitudinal direction of the heat pipe.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop an improved thermal module with enhanced assembling structure to overcome the disadvantages in the prior art thermal module.